Mother boils son’s hands over GH¢1

A little over a month after a mother had been jailed for six years for torturing her biological son, another woman has allegedly boiled the two hands of her nine-year-old son at Mosuko, Kwabenya, near Accra.

The suspect, Emelia Ofosu, a 25-year-old unemployed mother of two, is said to have put the hands of her son (name withheld) in boiling water for squandering the GH¢1 which she had given to him as refuse dumping fee.
Boy pockets money

When the Daily Graphic contacted the Madina Office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ms Christine Sropenyo said on March 28, 2015, Emelia gave her son money to go and dump refuse at a nearby dumping site, but the boy allegedly pocketed the money and dumped the refuse behind a neighbour’s house.

About 8 a.m. the following day, she said, the neighbour confronted Emelia and accused her of using the back of her (neighbour’s) house as a refuse dump.

After the neighbour left, Ms Sropenyo said, Emelia, who was heating water meant for bathing her younger child, dipped her son’s hands in the hot water.

When the boy shouted for help, Emelia allegedly reprimanded him and warned him to put a stop to his bad behaviour or face worse forms of punishment.
Good Samaritan to the rescue

Ms Sropenyo said a Good Samaritan, who went to the boy’s rescue when he was being tortured by his mother, took the boy to a private clinic nearby and later reported the matter to the Kwabenya Police.

After the Good Samaritan had filed a complaint, the mother of the victim was arrested, following which the case was referred to the Madina DOVVSU.

However, when Emelia was arrested, she told the police that her son had slipped and accidentally fallen into the hot water.

“Yet police investigations and the victim’s statement established that the suspect had forcibly put her son’s hands in hot water,” Ms Sropenyo said.
My son is a thief

The woman , according to the police, claimed her son was a thief and that he had been stealing from her and some neighbours.

Ms Sropenyo said the suspect said her son had been stealing phones and money belonging to other people, which was causing her a lot of embarrassment.

The suspect, the DOVVSU coordinator said, told the police she had even taken her son to “a prayer centre for him to be delivered from the evil spirit that was making him steal, but to no avail”.

The police have since granted the suspect, who is pregnant, bail, but the Madina DOVVSU Coordinator said she had been charged with causing harm and would be put before court.
Mother sentenced

On February 26, 2015, an Accra Circuit Court sentenced a 40-year-old mother, Mary Timah, to six years’ in prison for causing harm to her biological son with an electric iron.

She had inflicted injuries on her 14-year-old son with a hot electric iron for allegedly stealing GH¢20 she had kept in her wardrobe.